Brits pay TEN TIMES more than Europeans for train journeys

BRITS are paying TEN TIMES as much per mile as European passengers for trains, new research shows.

Just a day after figures showed train delays were at a 13-year high, new analysis showed EU journeys such as Paris to Nice and Munich to Berlin are much cheaper than typical journeys here in the UK.

Munich to Berlin is just 6p per mile, compared with the 68p it will cost passengers to cram on a train from Bristol to Bath.

Leeds to York is 65p per mile, compared with 31p per mile for the trip from Prague to Brno in the Czech Republic.

Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald stormed: “Decisions taken by Government ministers are making rail travel unaffordable for the many in favour of huge profits for the few.

“It is absurd that much of our railway is run by foreign state-owned companies, meaning that British travellers are paying over-the-odds in order to subsidise cheap rail travel across the world.”

All the ticket prices are based on bookings provisionally made earlier this month for travel at or around 8am on February 5.

A ticket from Bristol to Bath cost £8.20 – for the 12 miles.

Travelling from Gothenburg to Stockholm - a 246-mile journey – costs £16.85.

The figures come a week before Brits get hit with an eye-watering 3.2 per cent increase in rail fares for 2019.

A Department for Transport spokesman said the UK railway industry had “far lower taxpayer funded subsidies” than most of the rest of Europe.

He said Labour’s claims were “misleading” and that the UK has “some of the cheapest advance” fares in Europe.